Destination
by CyanJames2819
Summary: The Equestrians are at war with a new invasive species known as Changelings. Their last stronghold, Canterlot, is being invaded, the last thing they expected was aid from the stars. Heads Up: Anthropomorphic Ponies, Elements of Harmony (Epic Jewels of Awesomeness) aren't known but the Mane Six are still friends through different events and Nightmare Moon never happened.
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

**Destination**

 **Arrival**

A lone man sat on his desk, typing on his touch screen keyboard on his desk while a transparent screen hovered in front of him. His office lit from long, rod like light bulbs embedded on the edges of the ceiling. A small mottle of planet Earth, slowly rotating on his desk to his left, and a framed photo standing on its one leg to his right; him and his wife smiling at the camera like there's no tomorrow.

"Entry#: 546

It seems we're in our new solar system. The star's a little bigger then our own, and we're closing in on the planet that is resting on its Goldilocks Zone.

To be honest, I thought we would never ever reach this system, but thankfully, we kept everything together, both ship and human's alike. All that hardship on Earth; blood, sweat and tears had paid off. I am forever thankful for those who did their job to create such a masterpiece of engineering.

May those we left behind, rest in eternal peace."

He finished typing and pressed 'Enter'. He then cracked his knuckles and sat back, tilting the chair back so he could look up at the white ceiling with a sigh.

The intercom beeped a couple of times before a feminine voice spoke out, "Captain West, we have arrived and now starting to adjust the ship to orbit the planet. We now wait for your next command." She finished.

He leaned in and pressed the glowing, blue button on the screen of his desk, "I will be at the deck, shortly." He replied kindly with a rustic voice, than the chair started moving back and twisted to the right so he could stand up. He walked over to a full body mirror to check himself for any imperfections.

In front of him stood a tall, proud man, wearing a white and grey uniform hugging his body neatly. His name tag shined in the light; his name and title painted in blue. His skin a pale white and a small scar permanently imprinted on his right, dark grey eyebrow. His hair grey of age and stress, with white streaks as he smoothed it out with his hands. He grabbed the captain's hat hanging beside the mirror and puts it on with a smile. His emerald green eyes staring back at him in kind, promising a better future for their last remaining species.

He went through the sliding, hatch door and out into the hall. People walking and rushing by him, nodding and saluting him in greetings and he nodded in return with a smile everyone seen countless times. He turned to his left and started walking down. As he looked ahead, he could never see what was always ahead of him past fifty feet or so, as the halls parallel to the structure curved up.

He looked to his right and out the windows. From his end to the other was three kilometers of homes, grass, dirt, trees and most importantly, his people, living and playing happily on the streets and gardens. All pinned to the outer wall of the large cigar shaped ship, ever slowly spinning to keep everyone on their feet. In the middle was an impossibly long, thick rod, imitating as their once, beautiful sun. Three thousand strong, enough to repopulate what was lost. They were no one race, his kind people came from every parts of Earth to keep diversity. It took time for everyone to warm up to one another, and to him, but time was all they all had at the time. Now, everyone practically knows everyone in this ship. Making them one big, happy, slightly dysfunctional family.

He reached his destination shortly after he returned his gaze at the curving hall and stepped into one of three elevators on the bow of the ship. As it closed, he felt gravity pulling down on his stomach, he never did get used to the feeling. The doors opened to him, showing him a short, spinning tube leading to another hatch, but rounded this time.

He stepped out of the elevator and spun a couple of times before he stopped himself by reaching out to a handle bar. His body felt weightless here, as it was one of the only places in the ship that didn't spin other than the docks and the engine room. He looked back at the trio of closed, spinning doors and then moved his gaze back at the hatch. He pushed himself towards it with a light grunt and stopped as he planted his hands on the cool surface of the entrance. He dragged himself over to a small screen and pressed his left hand onto it. After it scanned his hand, a ring of blue light on the face of the hatch turned green and opened for him with a hiss.

As he entered, he was surrounded by pilots and co-pilots alike, wearing tight full body suites with headsets floating around or sitting in chairs. The deck was filled with levers, nubs, buttons and touch screens in various colors, shapes and sizes in every direction. This one room alone made him think he was inside a large computer.

"Captain on deck!" a woman yelled to his right. Everyone halted what they were doing and saluted at him for a brief moment before they went right back to work to keep the ship in stable condition.

"Privet." He looked at the women, "A little push please." He asked nicely. She nodded, grabbed his right foot and pushed him towards the front. He stopped himself by grabbing onto the chair of one of the pilots was sitting on. "How is the diagnostics of Child of Earth, Pilot?" he asked.

"Child of Earths' main engines are off." The male pilot spoke as he worked the instruments in front of him. Suddenly, a holographic image of the ship flickered to life in front of them. "The stabilizers are working on making the correct orbit around the planet's gravitational pull. The fusion reactor is working at sixty percent power. Day and night cycle is still normal. Oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are at normal. The cycling barrel is still spinning, Captain." He answered.

The captain chuckled, "How about the planet?" he asked once more.

The ship then changed into an almost featureless globe, "After years of observations from the Black Knight orbiting the planet, Captain; the planet is at least five percent larger than Earth. Oxygen levels twenty percent higher. Twenty six hour day and night cycle. Sixty percent covered in water. It has its own magnetic field on the outer edges and an ozone layer to protect it from the star's corona mass ejections. It has mountainous areas, meaning it also has tectonic activity below the surface of the planet, sir."

"A big sister of mother Earth…" he whispered. He looked at the blocked windows, "Split the blast shield, pilot, uncover all the windows and fill every screen on this ship to show the image of the planet, now." He ordered and the pilot nodded. He reached over to a dome shaped glass, glowing green. He planted his hand on it and it flashed cyan blue.

The cigar shaped ship's thick sheet of metal, dented from years of meteor collisions started slowly splitting along the middle, a thin layer of ice breaking off was it finally moved. As it fully opened up, large, thick windows circling the front and sides of the spinning barrel opened up to show the new solar system, as well as the planet itself.

Everyone stopped, now just looking down at the windows and screens, staring in awe at the planet and its singular moon.

The planet was a display of colors, full of greens, browns, greys, and blues and even white at the poles. One land mass even reached from the very top to bottom, no ocean of water cutting through the middle but small lakes and rivers.

As everyone stared in awe, the captain himself was a little worried for the patches of grey that littered some of the land. He turned to another pilot, "You." He pointed at the woman. She looked at him as he floated over to her, "Zoom in on one of the grey spots on the planet." He said to her and she nodded.

She quickly tapped and ran her fingers on the screen in front of her as a picture of the planet came to life. She tapped a spot on the planet, a little target sign now displaying. She put both her hands on either side of the target and started spreading them apart, causing the screen to zoom in. After a moment, he and everyone in the room were shocked to see architectural buildings standing on the side of a mountain. Buildings and roads littered the streets, and even some kind of castle resting near the northern part of the odd, alien city. The co-pilot zoomed out just a bit and saw the whole picture of the city.

Captain West blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times, trying to see if he was hallucinating or not, and again, the structures were still there, plain as day.

"Captain?" he looked back and saw everyone was looking at him, "What now?" the co-pilot asked.

He looked back at the screen, reached out and started looking through the streets, trying to see if anything or anyone would show up… nothing. _Where in the world are they?_ He thought to himself. After a moment of searching, he noticed some buildings and part of the castle were crumbled down. He leaned back and looked at everyone once more. "Now we investigate what happened to the locals." He said to everyone in the room.

* * *

On the planet itself, in the crumbled city of Canterlot, a bipedal, lone Princess stood on her tower's balcony, looking up at the sky in confusion. She wore an armor covering her whole body in gold and silvery colors, as well as a chainmail hiding under the sheets of metal. Her white horn erecting out from her forehead, sprouting out to the sky as she had her light rainbow hair done in a ponytail. Her holster strapped to her hip, holding her sword in place. Her tail braded to keep it from going everywhere when she fought in her battles with her subjects. Her large wings folded on her back with bits and pieces of metal covering them as well. Alas, her armor was not perfect. It was littered with scratches, dents and scares of battle; some old and some recent.

She squinted her gaze at the small, strange object in the sky, reflecting some of the light from her sun. To her, it looked like a long barrel of some sort, just hovering well away from the day moon. It was strange to her to see the rounded, plate like head of the thing to split and slowly moved back to reveal a little nub.

"Princess?" she looked back and smiled at the smaller, purple Alicorn standing in front of her, holding onto a telescope in her arms. She wore her own set of armor to protect her form, having a few scars and dents just like Celestia herself.

"Twilight, no need to be so formal with me when we're alone." she waved her over with a motherly smile. Twilight quickly walked over, looking up at her fellow Princess. "We're friends, and friends don't treat each other like royalty."

"I-I know Pri-Celestia. Habits die hard, I guess." she answered, and looked down at the telescope and back up at her, "So why do you need this? Did you see them coming?" her tone and expression began to turn into fear.

"No, Twilight. I haven't seen them yet, don't worry. I just need to use it at the moment." She answered, calming Twilight down and ran her three fingers on the younger one's cheek.

She made a sigh of relief and started setting up the contraption, "Where do you want it pointing at? The North? South? Maybe West?" she questioned happily as she adjusted the scope and looking through it, to make sure it was clear and clean.

"The sky." Celestia answered.

Twilight looked at her strangely, "What? In the middle of the day? What are you looking at?" she began to search the sky herself.

Celestia pointed, "Towards that thing, near the moon."

Twilight moved her gaze and lightly gasped, "What in the world, is that!?" she moved closer to the railing of the balcony, raising a hand to cover her eyes from the light of day.

"That's what I want to find out, dear Twilight. Now go and instruct the Stargazers in the observatory. I will be here if anyone needs me." She said to Twilight. She eagerly nodded her head and rushed down the spiraling staircase as instructed, her armor clicking and clanging as she moved.

* * *

Back in the Child of Earth, a lone woman sits under a large sphere, a holographic muddle of their beloved, once home planet. Surrounding the hologram were a few screens talking about said planet and how they built the interstellar ship. But the most popular and respected item they had in show was "The Wall of Memories". Basically a large slab of white, hard stone standing like an obelisk, filled with at least a dozen names of people whom passed onto the afterlife while on the ship.

The location brought various people to see the surrounding area, in a middle of a cross section, the elderly adults showing the kids on the sphere where they once lived on their home planet. The sphere, however, never showed where she must have lived on the planet. All it shows was a slowly spinning planet.

She wore a full body suite, much thicker and advanced then anyone had in the ship. Her fellow Peace Keepers wore the same suite as her, but her left arm was bare, not that she had a flesh and blood arm anyways. To replace that was mechanical one, 'much more useful than a normal one', she always amused. But getting it was a painful experience; she hopped to never go through it ever again. Like the rest of Peace Keepers in the ship, she had to go through augmentation to set up her body to do their tasks. They had their muscles strengthen to make them fast and agile, their bones reinforced to withstand stronger impacts, and their minds and senses doubled so they would be two steps ahead then their opponents. Basically, they were superheroes to the young ones eyes. But the first week, her and her fellow team had to stay on hospital beds to be monitored closely, not that she complained, she actually embraced it as her whole body at the time, felt like she went through a hail storm with nothing on.

She had her tools out and adjusting her other, 'lucky' arm on her laps. It wasn't exactly 'new' anymore, more of an antique now, but she couldn't let it go, after everything she went through to get to her position.

She looked down to her right and saw her own reflection on the dark, shinning floor. Her skin was tanned from staying out so many times to do her duty and who she was related to. She's also what you could call, 'a red head' as it showed her red, ginger hair put to a ponytail to keep it from getting in the way to do her job, which was patrolling the streets and halls for any danger, guarding secure areas and investigating possible dangerous areas. On her graduation day, she got the top marks, thus became one of the leaders of the Peace Keepers.

She smiled at her own reflection as her own green eyes smiled back at her, before she continued to work on the mechanical arm she hears a voice.

"Kelly?" her ear piece called to her.

"Yes, Captain?" he answered as she started to put her tools away in a small, black tool box and closed it with a twisting crank of a nub.

"I have a job for you. Meet me in my office." He said to her.

"Will be there in a jiffy, sir. Over." He answered, bent her lucky arm close with an audible 'Click!', picked up her small tool box and started walking to the nearest hatch door. It opened up for her, walked into the hall and looked to her side on a small six-man pod attached to the outer wall. She goes in with a couple other people, sat down and it wrapped a belt around her waist. She tucked her things under her arms just before the pod rocketed off to the direction of the ship's bow.

After a few moments of greeting a few familiar faces while going twenty miles per hour, she hopped off the transporter and started walking towards the office of their leader.

She knocked on the hatch and was quickly followed by a call from inside.

"Come in!"

The hatch slides open and she steps in. She moved her tool box over to her other mechanical hand and saluted with her free hand, "Reporting for duty, sir!" she called out and stood at attention with one of the best poker faces the ship ever seen.

The chair spins around as the Captain smiled at her, "Good to see you too, Kelly." He said back and leaned on his desk, "At ease." She relaxed and looked at him in the eyes, "I'm sorry to call you in on your few break times, but I have an important mission for you."

"Of course, sir."

"I need you to go down with someone and investigate what have happened to the local alien life down on the planet." He pressed a spot on his desk, activating a screen to show up in the middle of the air. The images showed broken buildings and streets in some sort of alien city. There were few scorch marks and what looked like to her, potholes from explosions. "If we're going to make a home on this planet, we might as well make peace first with the local natives. I need you and your charge to go and see if they're still there and search the area with caution. We must see if they're willing to make diplomatic relations with us, and maybe help them with whatever they need."

"Of course, sir. Do I need to bring any weapons for this mission?" she asked.

"Might as well, Kelly. We don't want one of our best to be defenceless on an alien planet." He answered.

"Okay, sir. When will I go?"

"Sooner, the better." He sat back, "Now go and get ready, I'll meet you at the Docking Bay One with your charge." He waved her off with a smile.

She saluted at him one more time before she spun around on one heel and went off as instructed.

 _Finally… something different to do,_ she thought with a tiny smile.

 **Authors' Note: I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 now that this fic is back from the grave. I hope you enjoyed it and the next chapter will be posted next week, Friday.**

 **So till next time, have a nice day/night, comment if you like and good reading, everyone. :)**


	2. Chapter 2: First Contact

**Destination**

 **First Contact**

Kellys' suit now had dark and light grey advance armor attached and protecting her chest, back, shoulder, thighs, shins and her toes and heels. On the face of the chest piece, a small piece protrudes out to partly cover her neck; had her rank emblem stamped on with a silver star with three bars at the bottom. But her left arm was bare of protective, metal covering. Why waist good armor plating when there's a good chance that same arm might get blown off?

She shook and moved around her body in the locker room to see if they were loose or restricting her movements. With a smirk, she walked over to a wall, a clear space between the lockers and it. She pressed her right hand onto it, causing glowing spots on the surface where her fingertips were placed.

The whole, twenty foot long wall suddenly jerks inward and swiftly slides up, revealing many, different set of equipments and weapons. First, she walked over to the far right to grab one of ten, armored packs. She unhooked it from its resting place, swung it over her shoulder and attached itself onto her back with a few, audible 'Clicks!' onto her shoulders and under her arms. She stepped to her left, grabbed two army knives in her small holsters and clicked them both on her lower back. She then grabbed four grenades and set two on each thigh. She moved a little further down. Looking at all the firearms, searching for the right ones, and stops with a smile.

"Thought I never get to see you, ever again." She reached out and unhinged the DMR from the wall and inspected the weapon like every good warrior should. She grunted in approval, swung the weapon over her back and attached itself onto the side of the pack. She grabbed two Magnums with both living and mechanical hands, and put them in their rightful holsters onto her thighs. She stepped back to let the wall close itself and turned back to her locker a few paces away from her. She reached up into her locker and looked at her reflection on the large fishbowl like visor, tinted grey.

She smiled, crammed the helmet in the crook of her left arm and started walking out, the lights turning themselves out in her wake.

Once she reached the correct Docking Bay, she hops off the transporter and floated across and stopped herself on a railing. She scanned the large hanger while planting her feet on the floor with a light thump; the area was filled with different kinds of ships, in rows upon rows of either sides of the walls. She spots her Captain and a young woman standing beside him. With a quick hop, she travels across the bay over to him, stopped dead in her tracks as she stepped down a few paces away from him and gave him a swift salute. He smiled at her, "Ah! Good timing, Commander. Let me introduce you to Miss Snowlet. She will be accompanying you down on the planet. Your job is to protect her and keep an eye out for any danger or object of interest." He said to her.

The white suited woman steps forward carefully, trying to find gravity that wasn't there, brings out her hand with a small smile. She was few inches shorter then Kelly, her hair blond and bright in the light and her skin brighter then the Captain himself. Her baby blue eyes staring at her in kind and innocence.

Kelly firmly shook her hand for a brief moment. The woman smiled a little wider, "Nice to meet you, Commander." She spoke with a soft voice. Kelly nodded in reply and looked back at the Captain.

"Okay you two. You will land on the southern part of the alien city and move up north towards the castle. We would be your eyes from above, but it looked like some cloud cover will be down there in a few moments, but we will keep radio contact and the cameras on your helmets will be our eyes." he stepped aside and gestured to the hatch of the small ship opening down, making a short ramp for them to step in. "Stay safe you two." He said to them both. Kelly put her helmet on, Snowlet doing the same with a more delicate looking one and both nodded to him.

They both saluted at him, "Sir! Yes, sir!" they both said in unison and turned to the ship. The short woman took a step but loses her footing and started floating up with a squeak. Kelly grabs her foot, pulled her down and gently pushed her towards the opening of the craft. With a quick thank you, the woman goes and quickly sat down on the co-pilot's seat. Kelly followed soon after with a hop, the hatch closing behind her and sat herself down. They strapped themselves onto their seats and both felt a sudden jolt of motion, the small ship being lifted up in the air by a large, mechanical arm protruding out from the ceiling of the hanger. They both saw the Captain walking away from them as a large hatch split open from under them, a wall of transparent, flickering wall of sparking plasma being produced to stop the vacuum of space.

The Captain turned around and waved at them right before they were dropped down into space, being pushed down by a jet of pressurized air from the arm. Kelly grabbed the joysticks and the rockets to the sides and two at the back erupted to life, stopping them from falling down to the planet. She stabilized the ship and waited for her co-pilot to calm down for a few moments.

She looked at her passenger with a straight face, "Ready?" she asked flatly. Snowlet nodded, holding a hand onto her chest. With her approval she looked ahead and let the ship move forward, towards the planet. A target lighted up on the screen, showing a series of rings to show her where to fly through space and land. After a few moments, the ships started shaking and deafening noise rattled their minds. Snowlet clenched the arm rails of her seat, closing her eyes shot, praying for both their lives.

Kelly ignored the violent shaking, years of practice doing their work as she decent down and past the layers of clouds, still following the path of red rings carefully with small adjustments of her joysticks. As they broke through the last clouds, she quickly activated the cloaking of the ship. Slowing disappearing from head to back, they became part of the sky, the only thing showing were four, blue after burners of the engines. The violent shaking died down and Snowlet sighed in relief with a small chuckle.

"Everyone, doing okay?" they both heard their Captain in their ear pieces.

"Yes, sir. Entry a little shaky but everything's still working." Kelly answered, checking the ship's systems for a moment before looking back at the path of rings. "Landing in T-minus thirty seconds." She spoke once more.

She guided the ship closer to the ground to try and hide the after burners from view of the city, just in case. She then guided the ship under the city itself and slowed down to a stop behind a small water fall. She slowly landed it down and killed the engines as the landing gear was set firmly on the wet, gravel ground. They both unstrapped themselves from their seats and Kelly was first at the door.

As the hatch started lowering itself down, she grabbed onto her DMR from her back and pointed it outside. She looked at her charge, "Stay until I say so." She said to her, and Snowlet nodded in quick agreement.

Kelly looked back out and slowly went down the steps, pointing her gun in every direction, trying to search for anything suspicious. To her, every single thing she saw was alien to her. The rocks, wet gravel, the wall and ceiling of rock and even the stunning waterfall. Living her whole life in a ship and the strict restrictions alienated her mind on what was normal and what was alien, and at the moment, the whole planet was one, huge, strange ball of dirt. She felt a little heavier, but nothing too taxing with her augmented body. Even just being able to see for miles, confused and dazed her in awe, but still true to her training, she continued to search the area for any danger. After a minute or two, she finally called out.

"Clear!"

The woman stepped out and her eyes bulged out in awe and shock. She stayed at the entrance for a few more moments, just staring at her surroundings until she saw her bodyguard standing around, searching the area with her gun lowered and her visor cleared to show her face. She quickly went down the steps and planted her feet on gravel ground. She stopped and looked down at the wet ground in awe. She walked around for a few moments giddily until Kelly cleared her throat, she looked up at her with a smile.

"We're going to have to send the ship in the clouds, Miss Snowlet. Please step back from the vehicle." She said as she walked past her and went up near the opened hatch. A display lights up in front of her and started typing out a few things with her left hand, and when she was finished she quickly stepped back as the engines started up and the hatch closed itself. When it hovered in the air, its clocking activated itself and rocketed towards the sky and into the clouds after bursting through the falls, leaving a small rainbow for a brief moment.

Kelly looked back at her, "If we get into trouble, it'll go right to you, and if I'm gone or passed on, go right in and it'll take you back on the Child of Earth. Understood?" she said in a commanding tone, and the short woman nodded, in both fear and understanding. "Good, now get to work. We only have so much daylight to spend." She said and turned away from her, "I'll be searching the area." She said before walking off to see if there was an easier way to get into the city, quite literally, right above them.

* * *

Twilight stood beside her old teacher at the gates, looking out towards their crumbled city of Canterlot. A cyan Pegasus mare with rainbow hair and tail landed right in front of them with a thud, small bits of dust flying off. Her body was also covered in armor, but the chainmail was left out and the armor plating itself looked smooth and elegant to make her look aerodynamic. She had two, short holsters strapped to her sides where her two short swords rested.

She smiled at the lavender friend, "Ready to go, Twi?" she asked and planted her hands onto her hips.

Twilight nodded with a small smile, "Yes, Rainbow. You?" she spoke back, earning a nod.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, Twilight looked up at Celestia, "Stay safe you two. I'll be at the balcony shortly to keep an eye you both." She assured them.

"Don't worry, Princess. I got her back." Rainbow Dash gestured to herself, "Whatever that came out of the clouds won't hurt my best friend." She pulled in Twilight and bear hugged her, causing the poor mare to wheeze.

Celestia giggled at the display, "Still, travel the Canterlot grounds with caution. We don't know if the thing is dangerous or not." She warned.

"Of course, Celestia." Twilight answered with a smile.

Celestia smiled at them, "I'll see you both soon and stay safe." She said to them both before they ran off. Twilight turned around, lifted both arms up to her sides and closed the doors with her magical grip. She took her breath as Rainbow patted her back.

"Where should we start first?" she asked.

Twilight straightened out as she turned to look at the once, lively, bustling city, "We start here and head south as we go."

* * *

Kelly walked in, in what looked like some kind of store. She inspected the surroundings with her charge at her tow. As she walked ahead, Snowlet looked at a piece of item on top of a high counter and walked towards it in interest. She slowly reached up and grabbed a plushy looking dull from its resting place. It was fluffy to touch, colored a dull green and one of its left black button eye was missing. The doll's shape itself was a little strange; almost like a teddy bear with stubby limbs, but it had heart shaped markings on its thighs and its muzzled a little longer. It had blue stringy tail and hair and that was about it.

She looked around a little more and saw similar items scattered around the shop. She looked closer and the whole place was littered with layers of dust. When she saw her guardian walk out of a room, she smiled at her and waved the plushy to her.

"I guess we're in a toy store, Commander." She spoke and quickly walked over to her, showing her the plush doll. Kelly grabbed it with her left hand and showed it back to her charge. Snowlet accepted it and looked around the shop, "Captain, are we allowed to take samples?"

"Of course, Miss Snowlet. Carry on." they both heard.

She took off her backpack and kneeled down. She opened it up, dusted the doll first, stuffed the plushy in and closed it back up.

"Come on," Kelly said as she walked back in the room she was just in before, "there's a hole to the other building in here." She spoke and waited for her. Snowlet quickly followed her in and both jumped across an alley to get to the other building. After they searched the empty building, they went back into the streets and walked into a cross section. Snowlet tapped Kelly on the shoulder and showed her a ball full of small glass eyes.

"We need to take images, so can you throw this up?" she asked.

Kelly rested her gun on her pack and accepted the ball from her, "How high?" she asked, handling the ball with her right hand.

"Ten feet first, then forty, if possible." She answered.

Kelly nodded and tossed the ball at the said height, with a small flash, it dropped back down and Kelly caught it. She swung her arm around and tossed the ball even higher in the air. She caught the ball once more and showed it to her charge. Snowlet smiled and took the ball back and put it back into her pack. "Thank you."

As Snowlet started looking around, Kelly looked at the castle's tower and saw something that interested her. She pointed her gun at it and looked through the camera scope. To her surprise, she saw something looking back at her with a scope of its own. It stood up straighter and it looked like it had polished armor on.

"Captain?" she asked as she continued to look through her scope and activating her visor to polarize it.

"I see we finally found them. Advance to the castle with caution." He spoke to her.

She lowered her gun and looked back at her charge near a building entrance, "Hurry up! We're heading to the castle!" She yelled, and right after she said that, a fast and swift shadow went across the street and landed on top of the building with a thud Snowlet was inspecting. Kelly quickly sprinted over to her and pointed her gun in the air, "Inside! Now!" she whispered.

They both quickly went in, Kelly shut the large door with a slam and when she saw a tall shelf to the side she quickly went around it and tipped it over, covering the doorway. She looked up and saw a large hole on the ceiling to her left and ushered Snowlet to go a little further in. When they reach a corner wall, they heard something moving around the roof and a glimpse of something in the street.

Suddenly, a mass of armor and feather's fell down from the ceiling and drew out its swords from its sides, pointing them both at them. The door and shelf smashes open to show another intruder wearing a set of armor as well, its hands raised to them, emitting a faint purple glow like smoke. Snowlet whimpered and started shaking at the aliens. Kelly activated a lazar pointer on the gun and aimed it at the head of the winged creature when it stepped forward, daring it to take another step. The thing crossed its eyes to look at the small dot on its forehead.

"Captain, what should we do?" she whispered, still aiming the gun at the sword, wielding creature.

In a long moment of silence, she noticed the purple one looking at her charge, in what looked like interest and concern. The thing looked at its partner and spoke in gibberish to the other. The blue one seemed conflicted and spoke back to the other. The purple one spoke again and pointed at her shaking charge. The purple one seemed to convince the blue one, as it growled and took away its swords. She looked at the purple one as it seemed to try to calm her down. The only person that needed calming down was her charge and she felt her flinch behind her when the purple one took a few steps forward. She quickly aimed the gun at it, causing her partner to rest its hands on its sword handles till the purple one hissed at her to back off.

"I advise you to lower your gun, Kelly. The purple one seemed concerned about Miss Snowlet. And remember, we're here to make a new home." Her Captain spoke to her.

She didn't respond, just turned off the lazar and threw her gun over her back and onto her pack, causing both aliens to jump in surprise at her sudden movement and her visor depolarized to show her poker face. Though, she kept her hands close to her pestles just in case.

* * *

Twilight was most intrigued about the two visitors; they were a tad shorter then her and Rainbow Dash, but the left arm of the first one looked mechanical and moved like a real arm.

"Can you understand me?" she asked hopefully, but only received blank stares from them both.

"Did you think they would understand you, right off the bat?" Rainbow commented with a small chuckle.

"Shush, you! Your brash actions nearly caused us to make another enemy! We're doing bad as it is, but do you really think we would survive if we made another!?" she spoke back with a light glare. Rainbow lowered her gaze down to the ground.

"Sorry, Twilight." Her friend apologized in shame.

She nodded at her and looked back at the two visitors, "Um… home?" she asked, yet again, receiving blank stares. She looked around for a moment, and when she found a piece of paper, she levitated it over, earning surprised looks from them both. She carefully started ripping it apart, and when she was done she showed house shaped, torn paper to the two visitors and tapped it a couple times and pointed at them.

The front one then pointed out the door and into the street of Canterlot. She looked back at the two and right back at the streets. She pointed outside and looked at the armored alien, "Outside?" she asked. She didn't know if it understood her or not, but it nodded its head nonetheless. She looked at Rainbow and gestured to the smashed entrance, "Maybe they're trying to show us outside?" her friend shrugged and went out. Twilight looked back at the two and waved for them to follow.

When they all got out, the shorter one shakily pointed a digit at the new object in the clearing sky. "Whoa! Is it saying, they came from that thing, in the sky!?" Rainbow said in awe and gestured to the ship before shielding her eyes to see more clearly at the object.

Twilight glanced at the two, their advanced clothing or suits and equipment seem to say they did. Then a thought came and looked at the armored alien in nervousness. She pointed at the thing it pointed at her moments ago and gestured to herself and her friend in fear.

The alien reached back and inspected the thing closely, looked at its companion and shook their heads at them both, while putting the thing back on its backpack-like-thing. They both inwardly sighed in relief, _Maybe they came in peace after all_. Twilight thought to herself then turned her gaze at the distant castle. She then looked at her friend, "You think Celestia and Luna would want to see them?"

"I think so." She answered.

Twilight looked back at the two, pointed towards the castle and waved for them to follow her with a gentle smile.

* * *

"Captain, we might need a Crawler to communicate with them. Holographic images might do much better than simple gestures." Kelly spoke as she followed their purple, alien tour guide.

"We were thinking the same thing. We will send down a few if you give us the green light." He finished.

As they closed in on the great walls and gates, the grounds, roads and buildings looked even worse than any other they saw earlier. Even the wall itself; scorch marks, crumbled potholes and even a few green and red splatter marks painted onto the wall and a few buildings around them.

Her charge stopped and slowly walked over to a green splatter on the road, nearby. She crouched down to it and took off her pack to take a sample. Just as she opened up her pack, a loud, ear piercing screech sounded out in one of the buildings. Kellys' augmented senses swiftly turned her gaze towards the building, seeing a dark, bug like creature jumping out of its hiding place and blasting out a glowing green projectile towards her charge from its arm.

Just as Snowlet started to turn her head towards the building, Kelly leaped towards her, reaching out to block her charge with her left arm. Just when the green, flaring ball was about to hit her, a blinding, green, flash of light hit them both and their ears started ringing.

When she recovered, she found herself staring at the somewhat cloudy sky and being dragged along the ground by her right arm, a scraping sound obviously being made by her armor. After a closer inspection, she saw part of her helmet was cracked, webbing out like a spiders' web. Then she saw she was dragged past the gate and everything darkened a little by its looming shadow.

When she stopped, she groaned and something started speaking to each other frantically, a hint of fear and confusion sounding out between them. Many more started shouting and sounds of running, fighting and battle cries filled the air.

She rolled her head to her left and saw her charge crawling towards her, part of her own helmet cracked and dark ash covering part of her helmet and chest. She lifted her left arm, but to her surprised, half of it was missing; sparks arching out as she moved it around and wires wobbling about.

She sat herself up with the help of her fellow human and looked at her, "We stumbled ourselves into a war." She whispered to both her ear piece and Snowlet.

 **Authors' Note: So that's chapter 2, I hope you enjoyed it.  
Till next Friday, comment if you like, have a nice day/night and good reading, everyone.** **:)**


	3. Chapter 3: Lock n' Load

**Destination**

 **Lock n' Load**

As the armored aliens run about to defend the castle grounds, Kelly slowly got up with the help of her human companion and reached up to her cracked helmet with her own remaining intact arm.

"Captain, we might need a backup on this." She looked around, seeing some technicolor creatures limping away from the wall with bandaged limbs and bodies, some being carried away entirely. She looked up at the wall itself and saw some of them running around, shooting out arrows, spears and even bolts of colored auras coming out of their hands. There were also green balls of light streaking over head, either hitting the castle or flying into the clouds with a burst. "Their numbers are declining, and by the looks of it, sir, they won't last too long."

"Back up will arrive in a few minutes, Kelly. Just h-hold out a little longer." His voice cracked as if he was in a hurry.

Kelly looked at her charge beside her and then looked around for the purple alien they met. When she spotted it talking to the blue winged alien and also a heavily armored orange one, she walked to them with Snowlet right behind her. As she walked, she noticed the purple one had a pair of wings as well, neatly tucked away behind its dark hair.

"Hey!" it jumped in surprised and looked back at them both, a surprised expression written on its face. Kelly gently brought Snowlet up front; pointed a finger at it and to Snowlet. Kelly gently pushed the woman towards it; brought up a thumb to herself and pointed back towards the wall. She reached down and brought out one of her magnums and switched the safety off with her thumb.

* * *

Twilight and Rainbow Dash stared at their visitor in awe and shock. One moment ago they saw it being blasted away and losing its left arm in the process, but now its standing right in front of them, with its smaller device drawn out with its remaining arm while the other sparked with electricity.

Twilight pointed at its torn, sparking arm, "Aren't you in pain?" she asked. It looked at its arm for a brief moment, and then simply shook its head 'no'. This confused her even more, but mentally shook her head and looked at Rainbow Dash to her right, "Rainbow, can you bring it up to the wall with the others? I think it wants to help." She said.

Dash felt a little uneasy but stepped forward and glared at the alien visitor, "Do any funny business, I'm dropping you." She spoke to it sternly, but all it did in response was turned around and waited. She growled but lifted up the somewhat heavy creature and flew off.

"What… in tarnation… are those thin's?" Applejack spoke up. Twilight turned around and looked down at the shorter visitor, only managing to reach the height of her shoulders.

"They came from the thing in the sky, right over there." She point.

AJ looked up and her eyes shot open, "What in the hay!? When did that thing show up!?" she adjust her hat and gently scratched the scar on her right cheek.

"Just today, Applejack. Now if you'll excuse me, I think our visitor wanted to keep an eye this one. I'll be with Princess Celestia if you need me." She finished and gently started nudging the alien towards the castle entrance where everyone injured were dragged in. In all honesty, she was scarred to the core, but she wore her brave mask to keep others from getting too scarred as well. She wondered if her old teacher felt the same.

* * *

Kelly dropped down onto the roof of the wall and her carrier started informing the others by shouting and pointing at her. She moved over to the edge and saw what creature caused her to lose part of her arm and attempted to kill her charge.

The horrid creatures varied from the four winged fliers with thin, stick like bodies, the ones with horns jutting out from their foreheads were a little more taller than the fliers, they also had wings but didn't seem to use them for flight, more like a cape and lastly the ground troopers. They were a head taller than their brethren, about the same size as her armored, alien companions and looked more robust. And every single one she saw had one thing in common; all their left forearms looked like little canons, shooting at their enemies. But the canons varied as well; the fliers had more thin, long and sleek looking ones with a sharp beyonet at the very tip, the horned bugs looked a little plain and normal but had two one foot spikes at each side of the weapon pointing out, but the big ones' canons, like their bodies, looked robust with small holes covering near the tip with a sharp, axe like blade at the bottom. All in all, to her, they were huge bugs with a nasty sting of their own.

She looked back towards the castle and saw her charge was being led to the castle doors, and the orange one going towards the gates with a shield and a large war hammer on hand. It went out the gates and started shouting out orders with the blue winged alien as the gates closed behind them.

A green bolt suddenly flew right over her head, causing her to duck in surprise. She calmed herself and her helmet spoke to her while she turned towards the city, "Activating Shields." Her whole body glowed from head to toe for a moment, revealing plates of small hexagons all over her body, and some on her left shoulder and arm, but faded as it got close to the torn forearm. She looked back down the wall and saw her new allies battling it out, both sides going an all out war, but the bugs seemed to be winning by sheer numbers.

"T-minus, ninety seconds till arrival, Commander." A feminine voice said to her through her earpiece.

"Better hurry up." She said, drew up her arm and started shooting the fliers right out of the air, off the walls and roofs of the building.

She then noticed a horned bug starting to levitate a piece of concrete boulder the size of her head in shock and tossed it out when it spun around with a yell. Before she could recover and react the boulder shattered on impact, square on her chest, shattering part of her shield with a quick flash and causing her to stumble back. She shook her head, dazed from the attack and slowly got back up to her feet.

"Shield recharging." Her helmet spoke to her again and started repairing the hexagons on her chest, one piece at a time.

"T-minus, sixty seconds." The voice said once more. Kelly looked ahead and saw four, tiny drop ships coming out of the clouds in the distance.

Suddenly a loud, thunderous roar sounded out right in front of her. She looked down the wall and saw a large, armored, hulk'ish creature rising out of the concrete ground. The orange alien shouted out and its teammates scattered out to try and get away from the large creature. To her, it looked more like a giant crab with a small head and a large cannon attached to its right arm instead, while its left looked like a cross between a large claw and a shield.

As it started ramming the gates, her alien allies started firing at with everything they got. Kelly quickly jogged over so she could be right over the gates and pushed aside her foreign teammates.

The two aliens glared at her, but then looked intrigued as she grabbed one of her grenades, pulled out the pin with her thumb and dropped it down but not before pressing the red trigger.

"T-minus, twenty sec-"

BOOM!

The explosion cause the large creature to fall back as it cried out in pain, its stubby legs blown off and part of its lower section splattered all over the gates, walls and ground. She smirked, grabbed another grenade and tossed it over to a platoon of dark creatures. A few seconds later, they flew in the air, crying out in pain as well, some loosing limb, and a few blowing up entirely, limbs scattering all around.

The drop ships flew over head and hovered over the courtyard of the castle. The back hatches flew open as her team ran out and jumped down all of thirty feet and onto the yard with their guns drawn out, a few leaped from their ship and landed down onto the wall beside her.

At least four to five dozen Peace Keepers were now at ground zero with her and started assisting their alien allies with the current threat. The ships themselves drew out their Pulse Canons from the bottom part of the head of the ships and started firing at the bugs with large, invisible fists down at them, causing them to be either knocked down or fly off like a ragdoll.

With the extra firepower, Kellys' human companions and their new alien allies, they started driving the screeching bugs back. But the things were content of taking over the castle, making it hard for them to keep them at bay.

A fellow human ran up to Kelly with white and red stripes on his armor and a red cross on where his rank supposed to be. He brought out a new arm to her, "You might need this, Commander." He said.

Kelly grabbed the base of her left arm; twisted it with a 'Click!' and pulled it out. She handed it to the Medic and grabbed the new one. She jammed it in her shoulder as it powered up and moved it around to make sure it was fully functional.

Her helmet than spoke up, "Calibrating new prosthetic limb to the host... checking all senses; touch, temperature changes and ghost senses... checking brain signals... checking reaction time... Calibration Complete." She smiled and thanked the man. He saluted at her, put the damaged arm under his arms and went off to do his duty.

"Commander Kelly?" her earpiece said.

"Speak." She said, drew out her DMR and aimed it at the distant creatures, firing three burst rounds.

"Um… I think the leader wants to speak with you." Snowlet spoke nervously.

Kelly stopped her shooting and looked back at the castle entrance to see her charge, the purple alien and a taller, white one right behind her she saw earlier back in her scope back in the streets. "Everyone, keep the bugs at bay. I won't be long." She said, earning a collective 'Yes, Commander!' through her earpiece. She swung her gun back onto the side of her pack, hopped down from the ledge and landed with a roll to lessen the impact. She ran up to the trio and stopped, looking up at the tall monarch. It spoke to her with a soothing voice and held onto what looked like a gentle smile. Kelly looked at Snowlet, but she just shrugged in response. She looked to her side, "Captain, did you send in a Crawler as well?" she asked.

"Green light?" he questioned.

"Green light." She answered.

One of the four drop ships stops shooting down at the bugs then flew over to them, opening up its back hatch, spun around and a dog like, mechanical robot hopped out. As it landed down, it started rolling like a wheel going towards them, swerving around the legs of alien and humans alike, but the tall creatures jumped away in surprise as it passed by. Suddenly, the mechanical dog started galloping on its four legs and halted right in front of them, sitting down like a loyal dog, dead still.

Its head basically looked like a large camera with one, big eye right at the front and the whole body itself looked like a metallic skeleton with a few markings to address where things were.

Kelly looked back at the tall monarch as it and the purple one looked at the crawler in awe. The moment she nodded her head, four tiny projectors flared to life on its head, making a holography screen in the air beside Kellys' head. The two aliens, and a few others around them, took a step back in shock and awe. Just then, a little blue, human stick figure showed up on the monitor, waving at them with a smiley face. The monarch's smile grew and waved back in kind.

"That's better." Kelly muttered.

Just as she was about to 'communicate' a little more, a pained yelled quickly caught her attention. She quickly looked back and saw one of her men fall off the ledge and landed down with a loud grunt. She quickly ran over and dragged him away from the wall. The medic quickly went over to her, lifted off his pack from his back and kneeled down beside the injured Keeper. They removed his hand from his left shoulder and saw a nasty burn mark and a part of his armor blown off, its ragged metal edges red from heat.

The medic opened up his pack and took out a small gun like device and popped in a small glass of yellow liquid. He then pressed the tip onto his fellow man's shoulder and the liquid quickly drains into him with a 'ksssst!'. He then took a round, white patch with a red ring outlining the edges and sealed up the Keeper's suite. "You'll be okay for now, but take it easy with the shoulder. You'll also have to be quarantined in the Medical Ward for any foreign, alien virus or bacteria." The medic said to him. The injured man nodded, got up with a grunt with a help of his captain and grabbed his gun from the ground.

"Will do, Doc. Thanks." He replied and started going back up the wall with the others, his shielding coming back to life.

Kelly then felt light tapping on her shoulder. She turned around and saw the tall monarch with the purple one beside her, and Snowlet beside the purple one. The Monarch then pointed at the Medic with his equipment and pointed at an injured alien nearby, being cared for by one of its kind. The tall alien's face took on a hopeful expression.

Kelly lightly shook her head 'No' as the robotic canine quickly sat down beside her and projected out its display.

* * *

Twilight was beyond thankful the visitors had this dog-like machine with them, and that they practically saved their very lives from those monsters behind the wall. The devices they use to kill and drive the Changelings away were a little loud but bearable, but the balls they threw shook the ground with a tiny tremors and near deafening when closer.

As she watched the display make two figures, one was short and the other taller one, one of her own kind she guessed. The device thing, she guessed their Field Medic used popped up in between the two and injected it to their visitor. They zoomed in and a cut was healed with a flashing green check mark. But when it injected into one of her kind, it started flashing red X.

She looked up at Celestia, "I think they're trying to tell us, their medicine won't work with us." She said and Celestia nodded with a sad sigh.

Celestia looked down at the short, armored creature and nodded in acknowledgement. With that, it drew out its weapon from its back and quickly started running back up the wall to help fight back.

Suddenly, the little dog-things' single eye started flashing red and projected out, to her, an aerial view of Canterlot, the fighting happening in the map happening around them in perfect time. The map then zoomed out, and in it showed a horde of Changelings going towards Canterlot from the north of the barren Waist Land. Both Princesses eyes got wide in horror.

"Invasion…" Twilight whispered, covering her mouth in terror.

Their visitor then quickly came back and the shorter one started frantically speaking to the other as it pointed at the horde. The armored visitor looked up at Celestia for a moment then turned away to the side as it spoke to nothing. After a moment, it turned back to them and drew out her hand, causing the whole map to be from being vertical and flipped down to horizontal. Then a short rod like object, with a large head showed up, floating over the map, split into three, pointed towards the horde and hit the map, pixels exploding out as it did. It then looked up at Celestia and a button materialized in front of her, resting right on the map as it flashed on and off in red.

A royal guard then went up to them, "Princess Celestia! A horde of Changelings from the north is coming this way!" he spoke frantically, the fear in his tone clear as day.

Celestia took a moment to look at the two visitors, a frightened Twilight and at the Guard. She then looked down at the map once more to see the horde slowly getting closer. She closed her eyes and looked at the armored visitor, "You do it." She point at it and then down at the holographic, flashing button. It shook its head firmly, pointed at her and down at the ground. Then gestured to itself and its alien companion, and pointed up towards the sky.

"Celestia, it's saying this is your world, not theirs." Twilight spoke up, now clearly shaking.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then looked down at the button. A second later, she pressed down right through it, but then a red warning sign lighted up on the map's face and zoomed out. They then noticed three small arrows rocketing towards their city, but three large target signs lighted up on the ever closing horde of bugs. When the arrows got close to their city, they all looked up at the sky and three rockets zooming over head and past the castle with blue afterburners. They looked back down at the map and the moment they did, the ground shook three times as the arrows hit their targets, companied by deafening explosions and the air pushing them as fine dust threw up into the air.

Then they waited. The map showed a large dust cloud covering the area, obscuring their sight from their enemy.

Celestia quickly unfurled her large wings, jumped up and with a massive wing beat, started flying up to her watchtower.

"Celestia!" Twilight cried out for her former teacher as she flew up to her tower, her own wings started to spread, but didn't seemed too confident on using them. She looked at the castle entrance started running in to go to their Princess.

Celestia landed down onto her watch tower with a thud; ran around the ring of ledge with guardrails. She stopped as she saw the dust cloud, just half a kilometer away from her city. The Changelings had… It then clicked. She quickly looked to her city and saw all the Changelings that were attacking stopped. Everything was quiet for the longest of time, the wind and the engines of hovering ships the only sound entering her ears. Then the monstrous creatures started moving, not towards her, but away. She quickly looked back at the dust cloud, as it started clearing from the east wind. A moment later, tiny, black bodies of countless changelings covered the Waist Land, with three large craters, forming a triangular shape.

"Prince-" Twilight suddenly stopped as she saw the craters. She slowly walked over and stood beside her as she looked at the craters and laying bodies in shock. "How… wha…" she tried to speak.

"For such short creatures… they have powerful weapons…" Celestia quietly said.

* * *

Kelly and Snowlet walked up the steps of the wall and looked out into the battle-damaged city. As one of her Lieutenants informed, the bugs were retreating and long gone.

"D-did we win?" Snowlet asked.

"It seems like it…" the lieutenants said, raised up his Assault Rifle and looked through the scope. "Can't… see… any of them…" he said than lowered his gun.

"Still. Stand guard. Never know if they come back by surprise." Kelly reached up to her helmet and looked at hovering ships with their canons ready, "Pilots, make a sweep of the city. Try to find any of those things lingering around." She said and the ships started slowly floating around the city.

"What if we find them, Commander?" a pilot spoke to her.

"Fire warning shots, drive them away from here. If they stay put and fire back… well, you're the boot." Kelly answered, earning four 'Yes, Commander!'.

* * *

Celestia and Twilight watch as one of their flying ships started shooting around a pack of Changelings, driving them out into the street. They continued shooting around them, but the black creatures started shooting at the ship with screeching battle cries. Celestia squint her eyes to see the device under the head of the ship changing from wide to a narrow barrel. It then started shooting them with deadly accuracy, splitting the shells of the creature's chest and shredding them apart. She winced at the sight and then looked down at the ground with Twilight.

"So… what do we do with them?" Twilight asked nervously as she looked down at the courtyard, gripping the rail tightly.

"We establish a Peace Treaty." Celestia answered, looking down as well.

"What!?" Twilight stepped back from her in shock, "You saw what they can do! The shooting, the explosions, and their ships!" she gestured to the patrolling ships hovering around their city.

Celestia looked at her, "They had no other choice, Twilight. You need to be a little more observant. They were trying to drive them away the city, shooting at the ground around them with their invisible force canons, but the Changelings stayed." She then pointed at the large craters, "As you said, I'm in charge of this kingdom. They could have done this by themselves, but they turned to me for the order to launch their fast, explosive rods." She looked back down at the courtyard and at the mechanical armed visitor, calling out orders and pointing out to its own kind, "They came here for a reason, Twilight Sparkle. They haven't come all this way to fight. Traveling between the distances of the stars takes years." She looked at her former student, "Before you were even born, I witnessed a tiny, barely noticeable moving star connect with another brighter one. Ever since then, the once bright star was out a few days before Nightmare Moon returned."

"So… you think they came from that star?" Twilight asked, now feeling a little sorry for their visitors and her outburst.

"We will find out soon once we establish a trust between our species." She answered, turned away from her capital and started going down the spiraling stairs with Twilight at her tow. She would be lying if she didn't feel a little threatened by their new friends.

 **Authors' Note: So, that's chapter 3, I hope you enjoyed this.  
Till next week, comment if you like, have a nice day/night and good reading, everyone.**


	4. Chapter 4: Warning

**Destination**

 **Warning**

Snowlet looked down at the open gates from the top, sitting down and watching both humans and aliens dragging in their alien allies, both injured and passed on. She then looked out into the city, watching their drop ships hovering around, looking for their new enemy hiding within the buildings and alleys.

She carefully got herself down onto her feet from the ledge and started walking down the staircase, casually getting down from the wall. She looked around her surroundings and decided to do what she was here for. She got down to the ground on one knee with her pack open and took out the spherical camera. She looked around as she stood up and waved over a Peace Keeper. He got up to her and saluted at attention, "Yes, ma'am?" he said.

She showed him the ball, "Can you toss this up thirty feet?" she asked. He nodded and tossed the ball into the sky and came back down. He showed the device to her, "Thank you. You may go back to work." She said as he nodded and went off.

She put it back into her pack beside the plushy, closed it with a 'Click' and puts it back on and looked at the castle up and down, admiring the architecture. She spoke up as if speaking to a ghost, "Captain. How many Crawlers have you brought down?" she asked hopefully.

"Plenty. Stand by." He answered as a ship stopped in the distance and glided over the courtyard where Snowlet was standing. Its hatch opened up and lowered down ten feet above ground. As it did, ten dog like machines jumped out with different colored stripping covering their heads and bodies and started going out to their respective leaders. Last one jumped out and quickly went up to her, covered in cyan blue stripes. She petted it with a smile and started walking in the castle with her personal Crawler close behind.

The castle halls, as her Crawler measured, were thirty feet high with columns supporting the arching roofs above and each window she passed were ten feet high and five feet wide. She was at awe of how beautiful the designs were etched into the white stones on the walls, floor and columns. The large, long, red carpets were either stitched expertly to another to connect them, or the whole thing was one huge carpet in itself.

Sadly, everything she saw weren't in perfect condition. The stone halls were filled with gash and scorch marks and a few crumbled pieces of wall laid around. She could only imagine what it might have looked like when every, single inch of this world be intact.

"Mm… maybe someday…" she said with a small smile and stopped. She looked down at her Crawler. "Cyan." She said as it straightened out its stance and stared blankly ahead. "Map out the current floor and return when finished." She spoke clearly.

The Crawler's back opened up a small circular hatch and a crystal ball like object started flashing red at near impossible speeds. With that, it started galloping ahead without looking back. With a nod and a smile, Snowlet took out a small pen-like device from her pack and a ring of green light lighted up on the back end. She walked over to the wall to her left and pressed the sharp point onto it, digging in to the hard wall a small bit with some difficulty. A tiny screen flared up in her helmet, spelling out the word, 'Granit'. She pressed the pen on the floor, the columns, windows and everything else she saw, gaining different answers within her helmet.

As she passed by a door slightly ajar, the whining and yelps of creatures caught her attention. She looked at the door in interest and gently opened it a little more to peek inside. Her eyes widen at the sight of small, fluffy puppies crawling about, either play fighting with each other or just snoozing away with others in a smile pile, cuddling one another.

One of them spots her at her doorway and started stumbling towards her. It started yelping at her as it reached her and sniffed her feet. Snowlet opened the door a little more, crouched down and started petting the puppy with a giddy smile. "Oh, you're so _Adorable_ and _Cute_! Yes you are!" she baby talked, sat down on the floor, picking up the fluff ball up to her face.

It started licking her cracked visor greedily as it rested its paws on it as well. She giggled, rested the pup down onto her crossed legs and gently started caressing it. As she did, other pups noticed their new visitor and started going to her in curiosity.

Snowlet noticed nearly all the puppies going towards her as she stopped petting the one in her laps. "Oh dear." She looked around a little more to see if someone else was here, but all she saw were open, wooden pens and a few large female dogs feeding their pups in them.

Then right ahead, she saw a large, brown and white dog come into view and stared at her with the pups sniffing, licking and pawing at her with little whines, barks and yelps to gain her attention. The dog started going towards her and slowed down as it got closer. Snowlet leaned her head back in fear as she hugged the puppy against her chest, fearing the worst from the large dog. It started sniffing her helmet but a bark stopped it and looked back at a laying dog. It started looking through and piling pups and looked at the one pressed against her chest. It started pawing at her arm with a whine. Snowlet quickly but gently put the pup down as it gently picked it up by the scruff by the back of its neck and started prancing back over to its fellow kind.

"Strange… Aren't we on an alien planet?" A female voice said through her helmets' com.

"W-what?" Snowlet said, now getting back to reality as she was being swarmed by fluffy and whining puppies.

"The dogs, why are there dog like creatures on this planet?" she said again.

"I-I don't know." Snowlet replied and started petting the whining puppies to calm them down.

As she looked ahead, she saw one of the aliens round a corner saying something quietly and gently with a soothing voice, but when it spotted all the puppies piling on Snowlet, it "Eeep!" and hid itself within one of the empty pens.

Snowlet just stared as she petted the puppies. The dog quickly went over and stared within the pen the alien was hiding behind. It barked and whined a few times, the alien spoke back, but then the dog went in and started pulling on its clothing, bidding it to come out, lightly growling.

"Um… hello!?" the curious researcher spoke out.

The dog stopped pulling as the alien started slowly peeking out, its hands resting on the edge as it stared at her with wide, teal eyes.

"Um… uh…" Snowlet started looking around, looked down at the puppies, picked one up and held it out to the alien with a smile.

Just as the shy alien started slowly coming out of hiding, metal click-clacking on the stone floor stopped it and with a yelp, hid itself back in. Snowlet looked over her shoulders to see the lens of her Crawler looking back at her, its crystal ball like object going back in its little compartment in its body. The machine then looked down at the little creatures and started scanning the little pups with its little red scanner from its chest.

A loud screech echoed into the room and through the hall. Snowlet looked back to see a tall white alien with a horn and a fashionable clothing covering its body as it back away from her and her Crawler. Its hands rose up to its chest height and started glowing a blue aura. Snowlet's radiation warning started flashing within her helmet. Her eyes widen and started slowly shimmy behind the other closed door, but when she was fully hidden the door was swung open, surprising her with a short scream and started shacking in fear.

"C-Commander K-K-Kelly…" she said to her radio with a shaky voice.

"Yes?" she heard.

"I… I'm…" she tried to say, but quickly started sending her camera feed instead.

"Keep calm, I'm coming." Kelly assured her.

The alien shouted at her and took a step forward; its hands started glowing a little brighter as plasma warning started flashing as well. She whimpered and stumbled back as the little pups started scrambling away from her with little whimpers and yelps. Her Crawler blocked the alien's firing range from her and its shield activated.

Just when she thought the alien was going to fire a gunshot rang out and the stone floor near the alien's hooves exploded. It jumped in surprise with a short scream of its own. A few more gunshots rang out as the bullets made the alien dance and back away with yelps. Snowlet's guardian came into view as she brought out her hand for her. Snowlet took the hand as Kelly helped her up to her feet, but kept her magnum pointed at the alien.

Snowlet quickly hid herself behind her protector and both started backing away from the open doors and the white alien. As they backed away, a group of alien guards blocked there way and pointed their spears and glowing hands at them.

"Crawler." Kelly spoke up, changing the machines' stance from being defensive to just sitting down and projected out a video from Snowlet's point of view. It showed when she peeked into the room, petting the puppies, trying to greet the shy alien and when the white one screamed and raised its glowing hands at her.

* * *

I and Celestia quickly went through the halls when we heard the devices shoot out, followed by the voice of Rarity's short yelps. When we arrived we saw the Royal Guards pointing their spears and hands at ready at the two visitors. I looked up to see Celestia lightly frowning in a questioning expression.

Suddenly our visitor's companions burst through the windows and pointed their devices at our guards and us. The rest got through the halls and blocked our exits. She started pulling through the guards, much to my concern.

"What is the meaning of this?" she questioned, then nearly all of their lazar sights pointed at her.

The different dog like machine went up to her and projected out a video from the shorter one's point of view. As it finished, I was pretty certain Rarity almost crushed our trust between our species. Just when Celestia was about to speak, a few stick figures showed up on the screen, one tall and white, while the other two were short and one green while the other black. When the tall one raised a sword at the green figure, the black one raised a firearm at the attacker and the green one quickly hid itself behind it. The figures disappeared and replaced by a globe of a world and a small ship beside it. Two figures came out of the two objects and one from the planet multiplied into countless figures, while the other only managed to make a small bundle, being dwarfed by the other.

* * *

The monarch started ordering out commands to its guards as they hesitantly lowered their arms.

"Lower your guns." Kelly spoke up and everyone of her fellow human did as commanded.

"Another close call." Their Captain said to her com.

"Agreed." Kelly replied and looked at Snowlet behind her, "Keep close. Our ships are going to sweep the city one more time before we get ready to go." She said and Snowlet nodded.

When every human and alien calmed down, they all went back to what they were doing. When they were out, her Captain's voice called out through her com, "Okay, time to get ready. Kelly, you know what to do." he said.

"Single row! Now!" she shouted and waited. All of her Peace Keepers ran into a single row and stood at attention, their firearm lowered. Kelly walked over to the far left, looked at the person and down the row, "Count Down!" she ordered and started hastily walking along the row as they shouted out their respective number when she reached them.

When she reached the very end, she noticed the orange alien was having trouble keeping its large dog at bay as it barked and snarled at her last Keeper, but the only thing she noticed was he didn't shout his number. She looked at him with a slight glare, "Count Down!" she ordered once more. As she waited for her team to reach the very end, the dog continued to bark at the silent man and she continued to glare at his polarized visor.

She made sure that all of her Keepers were to never polarize their visors when they were in drill, to show respect to their higher ups. She was not amused with the one in front of her right now.

The second last sounded out, "Fifty!" with a feminine voice.

Kellys' glare hardened, "What is the meaning of this, privet!?" she barked. He knocked on his helmet and shrugged.

"Um… Commander?" She looked at Snowlet a few paces away from her, her Crawler projecting out a small screen in front of her, "The Captain only sent out fifty Keepers." She said with a nervous tone.

She looked back at the short man, "Captain… is she correct?" she narrowed her eyes at the man.

"Ye-" before he could answered properly, she launched her right fist skyward, the Keeper's body following along and landed down in a heap. His body started flickering with static and flickered off completely to reveal a flier, bleeding out its green blood from its broken mouth. As it started getting up on its hand and knees and flutter its four wings, Kelly sprinted and kicked it from the side of its head, once again, sending it down on the dry ground a few feet away.

Kelly cracked her knuckles and turned away from the unconscious bug, "That's new." She muttered to herself as the dog stopped barking and started wagging her tail at her, its tongue hanging out happily, "Captain, send down heavy duty container. We got ourselves a specimen." She said stood back in front of her fellow humans.

"Noted." He replied.

"Four Rows!" she shouted out as the drop ships started hovering back over to the courtyard.

* * *

Twilight was lost for words. She thought Winona was just acting up on their visitors, but just out of nowhere, their leader threw a punch at one of the changelings impersonating one of them. She guessed their leader suspected something was out of place. When she saw their flying ships getting closer and their leader shouting out orders, she feared they were getting ready to go back to their space ship.

"Pri… Celestia, what are we going to do?" she asked fearfully and looked up at her former teacher.

Celestia clears her throat, gaining the visitor's attention. It then looked at a ship landing down and the first row started going into the open hatch. It looked to the side and spoke. A moment later, all ten mechanical dogs lined up in a single row. A cyan striped machine went beside Celestia and projected out a blank screen in front of them. One by one, little red lights turned on the machines' backs and produced a live feed on the once blank screen.

The armored visitor snaps her fingers and gave out order to the machines. After it spoke, two on the sides split to the sides and rest started galloping out the gates. As they did, they all noticed their bodies started disappearing, turning invisible right before their eyes.

When all of their visitors went into their four ships and flew off, that remained two; the short alien and her protector. Celestia and Twilight were a little confused as to why they were left behind, but the sound of erupting engines right above them caught their attention. As they looked up, they saw a cloaked, smaller ship slowly descending down. With a gust of wind, they covered their eyes from the wall of dust. They looked up once the air around them calmed down, and looked in awe at the small ship opening up a little stairway for their visitors and the whole object became visible. They looked at the windshield, expecting a visitor to be driving the small ship, but no one could see the alien pilot, just an empty cockpit.

Celestia looked at their mechanical armed visitor as it strolled over to the still unconscious changeling; grabbed its hind leg and started dragging it closer to its ship and its charge. It dropped its leg as they all heard erupting engines above.

As another ship started its slow descend, Celestia started walking over to the couple, Twilight scurried up in her tow. The short one looked up at her and tapped her guardian on the shoulder. It looked back at its charge, then up at Celesita and Twilight. Celestia drew out her hand with a gentle smile.

* * *

Kelly looked at the alien's hand for a second before she shook it, her hand nearly engulfed by the other as it spoke to her kindly with a little bow.

When the ramp touched down with a locking sound from their bigger drop ship, Kelly turned away from the monarch and walked over to unconscious bug, grabbed its arm and started dragging it over to ship as a heavy looking, metal crate opened up, two heavily armored Keepers standing by its side within the ship with shot guns at ready. She tossed the body in the crate with a thud and nodded to her Privets. They both saluted as the crate closed itself up and locked with a hiss, a small green light lighting up with a 'Beep!'.

She walked back out and stared up at the drop ship as it closed up. "Package is secure. Take 'er home."

The engines erupted once more; the aliens around the area covered their faces as a wall of dust was thrown up by the rising ship.

Kelly walked back over to the small drop ship and nodded at her charge. Snowlet nodded back and quickly walked in and took her place at the co-pilot's seat. Kelly looked at the monarch and the purple alien; nodded once and walked herself in the ship. When she seated herself, the small hatch closed itself with an audible hiss.

She held the joysticks and slowly rose the ship into the air, circled the alien city once, spotting the aliens waving away before she rocketed into the sky. "Entering orbit, Child of Earth. ETA ten minutes." She spoke as the whole ship rattled and gravity working against her and her charge.

"Acknowledged. We'll see you home, Commander." A feminine voice spoke back.

* * *

Celestia silently walked through the halls of her once, scratch free castle. Accompanying her was a small, mechanical dog; each step it took made metallic clicks on the stone floor. She looked down at her little companion, bringing a sly smile to her face as it reminded her of little Twilight when she was young; always clingy and curious.

She came up to a pair of double doors, painted in black, purple, blue and navy blue in decorative patterns to indicate her sisters beautiful night. She smiled and just when she was about to run her hand across the surface, her little friend's head lighted up with lazars, quickly followed by a flash of light.

She looked at her little friend and saw it looking at the double doors with interest. She lightly giggled and waited for it to finish.

A moment later, she opened the door and walked in the dim room and walked over to the circular bed that held a resting mare. Celestia slowly sat down beside the body, "How are you feeling, sister?" she asked.

"Art thou serious, dear sister?" Luna brought up a hand and covered her forehead with a light groan.

"Mm… I see…" she said, as the sound of clicking entered the room.

Luna opened her eyes in surprise and stated looking around, only to find her empty room, "Show thineself!" she called out as she tries to get up with a wince.

"Luna, calm down." Celestia gently pushed her back down with a motherly voice. "It's nothing to be afraid of… we had visitors today." She smiled at her sister's confused look.

"Are these 'visitors' the cause of the explosion and the quakes?" Luna said as she continued to look around her room. "Where is it?"

"Yes, Luna. They caused the explosions and such, savings us from the Changelings that were quite ready to invade the castle." Celestia looked back down at the floor and saw her friend just looking at her, "They all went back to their home, but they left these little dog like machines to keep an eye on the city." She scooted out of the way and gestured to it with a small smile.

Luna pulled herself closer to the edge and froze as she looked at the eyeglass of the machine. Its lenses adjusted itself and leaned its head closer to her. After a moment of intense staring, the machine looked away from her and started exploring her room, looking at all the items with great interest.

"These little machines they created were used to communicate between our ponies and the visitors. The visitors are fairly short, but their technological skills on making machines is phenomenal, to say the least. And… I think… they're looking for a new home to live in, judging by their vast spaceship that's floating in the sky at the moment."

"Really!? Is it there now!?" Luna asked excitedly with a big smile.

"Yes, but-" Celestia answered with a hint of concern.

"No 'but', dear sister. I like to see it." Luna pulled off her blanket to reveal her whole body wrapped in bandages, only revealing small patches of fur that stuck out and no clothing to cover her body with.

"Luna, please. You're in no condition to be moving right now." Celestia pleaded.

"Tia, please, just a single look. Single look and we will never ask, thou again." She squeezed her hand with begging eyes.

Celestia looked down at her lap for a few moments before she slowly nodded, "Okay, b-but please, slowly." She got up to her hooves and held onto Luna's hand for support. Luna smiled gratefully at her and slowly inched over to the edge of her bed. She drew out her hooves and gently set them down onto her floor for the first time in months. She slowly unfurled her wings as well, but her flight feathers were nothing more then burnt little stubs. What remained of her long tail was wrapped in bandages as she sat on her bed.

With the help of Celestia's magic, she slowly rose on her own two hooves with a small whimper and a wince. As she stood, her smile alone was endangering to split her face in half.

"We… I…" Luna's eyes developed little drops of tears with a single sniffle.

Celestia leaned in and nuzzled her nose lovingly, "You're getting there, sister. Now, slowly, let's go over to your balcony." Celestia took a step back, while Luna took a slow step forward with a happy chuckle. As they continued, Celestia noticed her little friend was following them from right behind Luna.

When they reached the closed, glass doors, Celestia slowly opened them up with a nudge of her wings, a light breeze starting to come in. Luna basked in the cool air, her aches and pains slowly melting away from her. As they got out, they saw the sun was halfway submerged in the horizon.

"Where is it, sister?" Luna asked as she started looking at the sky with searching eyes.

Celestia pointed, "Right there, Luna. Right above the clouds." She answered with a raised arm.

* * *

The Captain watched in amusement at the alien monarch and its darker, bandaged counterpart in his office. The smile and look of awe on the bandaged alien was enough to bring a smile on his aged face. It was strange how everything on that world was similar to their own world; animals, plants, the architectures and etcetera. That's something they're going to try and find out if the alien's leader was okay with his kind living here as well.

When he looked back at the monitor he jumped in surprise to see the bandaged alien's face took up to whole screen, staring at the camera curiously. It giggled, as if it knew it surprised an observer. He sighed with a chuckle.

"I hope I can convince them to let us stay." He said to himself and leaned back on his chair, continuing to watch the aliens' adorable curiosity of their Crawler. He then looked down at Kelly's broken helmet and ran a thumb across the cracked visor with a sigh, "Stay safe, my little angel…" he whispered and looked back at the screen to witness the two aliens hugging one another.

 **Authors' Note:** **That's chapter 4, I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Till next week, comment if you like, have a nice day/night and good reading, everyone.**


	5. Chapter 5: Prep

**Destination**

 **Prep**

Kelly sat in her own office; stripped of her armor. The room was dim but bright enough for her to see her journal on her empty desk. Its cover was hard and brown with leather, it had a little tail like black ribbon pocking out from the bottom of her personal book and was closed shut with a leather strap.

She just stared at the book or a few more moments before she sighed and grabbed it. She took the strap off and opened it to the very first page and read the slightly shaky writing.

 _If she should ever fall_

 _Who will stand and lead us all?_

 _She is our Guardian Angel_

 _She is our sword of light_

 _She is our hardened shield_

 _And she is the Demon to the enemy_

 _She is our savior_

 _She is our leader_

 _She is our beacon of hope in the darkest hour_

 _Who will stand tall and lead us all_

 _If she should ever fall?_

She read and gently ran three of her fingers on the cover of the page, sending her back to her early childhood when she lost her arm and rested in one of the Medical Wards' recovery room.

She lay on the bed, facing the ceiling, both pain and the constant beeping of a machine keeping her awake. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about the Peace Keeper that saved her life from an explosion, even if he knew there was little to no chance of her possible survival rate. Yet, he willingly threw himself to save her, and now here she was… resting and waiting for the doctors and nurses to come back to give her the news about her condition she already knew.

She ever so slowly turned her head to her left and looked at the large bandage on her shoulder, her missing arm lost in the explosion. She was sure she had a glimpse of her arm while they were evac't, her and the Keeper to the ER; quite literally burnt to the bone, being held together with nothing more than cartilage and what remained of her muscles. She was terrified of living a life of not having a flesh and bone left arm, or the scar that will permanently be there to remind her; she was now a handicap.

The hatch door opened up, earning her attention as she saw a lab coated doctor, a nurse and lastly her father. She wanted to cry on her father's shoulder when he got closer, but it was too painful to simply sit up on her own, so she just let the tears slide down her cheeks as she stared at them. Her father quickly went around the bed and squeezed her only hand, leaned in and kissed her forehead for ten long seconds. The kiss alone was almost enough to distract her from the pain.

She smiled up at him, "Thanks, daddy." She spoke just above a whisper with a dry voice.

The nurse plucked out a tissue paper from the stool and gently wiped Kelly's tears away, "There, there, sweetie. You'll be all right." She said in a motherly tone.

Kelly looked down at her bandaged shoulder sadly, "Will I?" she replied and turned away from both doctor and nurse and looked out the window into the empty park.

"Angel…" her father gently spoke, earning her attention. He took out a leather book from within his uniform, gently lifted her hand and rested the book down, where her palm rested down. "Before the Commander past he wrote on this empty journal and wanted you to have it." He finished.

Kelly looked down at the book with the best of her effort in wonder at her new journal. She then reached out on the edge of the bed and squeezed the fabric, causing the a little touchpad to flip up from the side. She pressed her finger onto the screen, taking control of the whole bed and rose up the top half of the bed, slowly letting her to sit up. She stopped the climb halfway and returned her gaze back down onto the book.

She picked it up to her lap and with a bit of a struggle, took the strap off and opened it. With a little surprise, a dog tag slid off the page and onto her thin blanket.

She gently grabbed it and rubbed away the ashy surface with her thumb, only to be met with a distorted surface, caused by the extreme heat.

 _It must have swung around his back to reach me._ She thought to herself then looked down at the journal and silently read what her savior wrote before his pass. On that day, a spark flickered, igniting a small candle to light her way to her destiny. She has done everything and anything to reach her destination, and will continue to walk the road not taken to keep her fellow endangered species safe and sound, even if it meant sacrificing her own life to do so.

She grabbed onto her two dog tags, her own and the unknown. She has etched her destiny onto her own stone, now set for all of her natural life.

She stood up from her seat and walked over to the right side of her office where her tools, equipment and gears sat on another table. She pulled up a stool for herself and looked down at her antique arm on the table. She then grabbed a few of her tools from the tool box to her left and started taking it apart as her little tags dangled from her neck. She smiled as she worked, thankful she was given another day-off after yesterdays' event. On the back of her mind, she always wanted to be an engineer or a mechanic, even when she was a little girl. Now, in her own little world, ribbons of her dream came true in her little hobby. It felt good to be young again, making nick-nacks and little gadgets for the fun of it.

With quick "Oh!" she searched around the table, and with a smile she grabbed a small remote from where she left it and pressed 'Play'. Neon blue lighting lit up around the room as Alternative Rock started playing, as well as other beat heavy music in her playlist. Her smile grew a little more before she went back to work on her old arm.

* * *

The Captain casually walked through the halls as he made his way to the Medical Ward to check on a couple of patients.

He was beyond thankful that Kelly got back from her mission with only a few scratches on her armor, and that her cracked visor stayed intact throughout the whole crazy event. His wife would most likely be as worried for her daughters' well being as well if she was here, but he won't get in her way to do her job. She knew her limits but that doesn't stop him from worrying, but he does his best to not show it in front of her. She always seems to get jumpy and falter with things when she knows he's on edge.

Not long after, he reached the Ward, nodded at all the doctors, nurses and patients going about the sterile environment at the moderately large waiting room. He went up to the front, ring like desk where a couple nurses worked, typing on a keyboards while looking at a screen, directing patients where to go and speaking through their earpieces.

He clears his throat, gaining one of their attention, "Hello, miss. Can you point me to where I can find a Peace Keeper under quarantine?" he asked nicely. Her small smile widens and pressed a key to the side. After a moment another nurse comes in through a double door and waves for him to follow her. He smiled down at the mute, office nurse with a nod, "Thank you kindly." he said before following the other nurse through the hall.

After going through hall after hall and to different parts of the large connective buildings they finally reached their destination after a couple minutes; in front of them was an airtight, hatch door that was made to withstand a direct hit from an dozen explosive, RPG shots. Alien pathogens are taken seriously here. In fact, this part of the building will spray everything in the Q-Building with a type of flammable liquid and gasses, then spark and combust every nook and cranny into flames hot enough to turn anything flammable into ashes within thirty seconds and into nothing after a minute, then the vents open to the vacuum of space for six hours to make sure everything is eradicated. If all else fails, the building will be ejected off the ship, rocket off in the distance and explode like a small nuke.

Hopefully, it'll never happen today. There are good people in there keeping everything in check to prevent such an event.

* * *

Princess Celestia walked the halls of her castle without her armor, her little mechanical friend followed by her side. Her subjects were up and about to do their jobs on maintaining everything in and around the castle; tending to the wounded and sick, cooking, prepping for another battle, etc, etc. She nods and smiles at all her subjects that went by, some old and others young, than comes across her old Dining Hall. It was converted into a storage room for all their food, water, medical supplies and as well as a bit of kibbles for their animal helpers.

She sees her former student inventorying everything they have left, and she was sure the young mare was thinking up another schedule to conserve all of what they had left, though, with so many injured and mouths to feed, those supplies were dwindling quite fast.

She walks up to her, "Good morning, Twilight." she greets with her trademark motherly tone.

The young mare jumps a little, engrossed in her work before being interrupted by her former teacher, causing her to drop her paperwork. She looks up at Celestia, "Oh… Pri-Ce-Celestia. Good morning." she replied and gathered up her work from the floor hastily, not realizing that she had magic.

"Do you know how long we have left before our supplies are finished?" she asked the Princess-in-training.

Twilight checked her notes uncertainly before answering, "Less than five days, m-maybe sooner if a situation arises." she answered solemnly.

Celestia sighs and looked around the large room as ponies came and went with food, water, medicine, etc. They needed to resupply everything they had, but the city before them had dried up, picked clean from everything, not even a single barrel or bottle of alcohol could be found within the pubs.

They needed to travel to another town to restock, but the changelings are too much of a threat to let her ponies go on by their own without her.

With a spark of realization, she looked at her little companion inspecting all of the supplies they had with strange lights coming out of its chest, inspecting all the items closely as it held them.

She just hopes they are willing to help her with the job she requires of them. A quick pit-stop in Ponyville shouldn't be too hard, right? Besides, she needs to make sure if there are still ponies in that little town that were left behind when the invasion started.

* * *

The Captain smiles at the Keeper within a thick, glass room, still wearing his torn armor and suit as he walked into one of the dozen or so rooms of the Q-Building. All the doctors and scientists were up and about like ants around the room, working overtime on their first patient. He also saw a woman and a little boy up against the glass, smiling and talking with his Keeper.

When the protector saw him, he quickly stood up from kneeling and saluted at attention.

"At ease, Privet." he said as the small family turned to him, the boy holding onto a crewd drawing.

The Keeper nods as the short boy stared at the Captain in awe. He smiles at the boy and ruffled his hair playfully.

"I-is he going to be okay?" the woman asked a little nervously.

He looked at all the people in the room and walked up to their chief scientist directing them here to there. The lab coated woman had blond hair fixed into a bun with a few streaks of silvery gray, had a pair of thin glasses and, to be honest with himself, looked quite beautiful in his eyes, even if she was almost as old as himself.

When she saw him going to her she smiled and adjusted her glasses, "Good morning, Captain West! A surprise to see you here." she greets happily with a slight British accent and put her hands in her coats' pockets.

He fought hard not to blush with a straight face, and he was grateful he didn't embarrass himself this time around.

He cleared his voice, "Good morning to you too, Dr. Sandlers. How is our patient doing? Are there any alien deceases in his body?" he asked and checked behind him to see if the visitors were eavesdropping.

"Yes," she answered bluntly, which in turn caused him to worry a little about an outbreak and the mans' life, but she continued, "though, it's a little surprising his immune system is winning very quickly." she turned and waved for him and both walked over to a monitor jutting out of a wall. It turns on by itself to show their progression. "We took small samples of the new pathogen from our host and did some tests to see how dangerous it is. So far most of our antibiotics work very well to hold back and eliminate the infection; some other medicines work as well but not all of them. With our hosts' help, we managed to identify the symptoms as well as follows; slight dizziness, minor headaches and low fevers. Nothing serious but it'll effect the host nonetheless with their daily activities. We activated his suits' temperature function to heat his body a little more to help fight off the decease, so all he needs is some rest for a couple more days in the containment to keep an eye on him." she finishes with a smile.

"Oh… well that greats to hear!" he looked around a little more before he leaned a little closer to her and whispered, "Have you checked with the other patient?"

She nods a little and nudges her head to the door to let him follow her out.

When they got into another room a few halls down from the Keeps' own containment, the room was the same size as all the others, though, this time the glass container was built like a tank, imbedded in a wall. The people going about work in here were different; zoologists, insectologists, xenologists, paleontologists, and many other scientists he guessed were important. On the other side of the thick glass wall was a moderately sized, white room containing their first ever alien creature.

It was jet black, insectoid alien that tried to infiltrate their home. Its carapace was smooth, elegant and jagged at some points, its wings were translucent with wavy lining to keep it all together and was about the same height as him, though, a just a few inches shorter. Its large, cool blue, compact eyes were pretty much starring at everything as it twitched its head from to and that, its own childlike interest showing. Its overall head shape was close between their new alien friends and their dogs; long and sleek. Its stick like body was smooth and at the end of its limbs-except its right arm-had strange holes. Thankfully, it wasn't using its primary weapon at the moment. It seemed more confused and curious than anything else.

Both himself and the doctor walked up to the cell.

"This bipedal, insectoid creature is rather interesting and strange to say the least. Just like the ants or termites, this is their flier or scout." the alien creature takes interest in them and goes up to them warily. At a closer look, the captain noticed it had three staples on its lower jaw, near the base where a crack was visible that ran all the way down with dried, green liquid or its blood sticking onto its natural body shield.

"Commander did some damage on the poor thing." he said while leaning in a little, but jumped back with a surprise as it suddenly pressed its left three fingered and two thumbed hand onto the glass in lighting speed.

The doctor giggled, "They're quite fast as well. It's simply amazing our Keepers actually kept up with them with their fast metabolism and quick and sensitive nervous systems, but I do wonder how its main weapon of an arm works exactly as well. It might prove useful in the future." she checked her data-pad and pressed and slid her fingers onto it, "We scanned its body earlier while it was unconscious and we repaired its mandible. There was nothing abnormal in particular that was detected, but we don't know these things quite well, but by what we know about how life works in general it was normal. Though, its potential energy in its weaponized arm and a little bit on its own body as a whole was quite high as well as its aura of magnetic field and it had quite many nerv endings and a smaller brain like system in the arm as well, leading us to assume it had complete control on how it forms and shoots bolts of plasma. Its cranial brain might be four-fifths the size of our own but that doesn't mean its dumb. To actually perform such a feet as forming and shooting plasma suggests this creature is smarter than it appears…".

With a flash of green like flame, the creatures' appearance changed into an exact copy of the good doctor and mimicked what she said with the same tone of voice.

"To actually perform such a feet as forming and shooting plasma suggests this creature is smarter than it appears…" it finished, leaving the captain dumbfounded for a moment as he starred at the mirror image of the woman.

"We're still trying to figure out how it does that as well but we're coming up empty. Very nice vocal cords, though." she smiled and waved at it and it mimics her with the same gesture. "We figured out how to expose their illusional cloak though." she taps a short video feed through her pad and gestures the device to him and it showed it was in thermal; the creature standing in front of the blue glass as straight as a human than slightly hunched over. He looked back up and saw the same woman standing within the containment.

"This'll be very useful, Doctor Sandlers. Thank you." he gave the device back to her and she nods with a bright smile.

"You're very welcome, Captain." she replied happily, feeling a little prideful.

"So… any ideas on what'll happen if it escapes? I mean, I know we had insects as large as household pets at one point on our planet." he asked.

"It'll most like pass out after a few minutes. Our air mixture is not that different from the planet itself, it's just a little more dense and compact than our own. The little room inside the containment is imitating the environment down on the planet to prevent it from falling unconscious." she answered and checked her touchpad.

"Captain?" his earpiece spoke up.

"Yes?" he replied and looked to the side.

"The leader of the alien city is… tapping the lens of our Crawler. She seems to want to have a word of helping them restock their supplies." The female operator said.

"What makes you say that?" he replied, a little confused.

"Well, the Crawler just found their supply room by following the leader and the supplies themselves seems very low… and because she keeps pointing at their stuff and showing us a map to a nearby town…"

In honesty, it kind of amused him that their new friends figured out how the Crawlers worked to some degree just after a day, but a little bad at the same time because he needed to postpone his Commanders' day-off to another day.

He sighed and turned to the pretty doctor, "Duty calls. I'll see you anther time, Doctor Sandlers." he said with a smile and turned to leave.

"Soon, hopefully!" he heard her yell back with a giggle before the hatch door behind him closed, making him blush as she effectively broke down his mental barrier with a couple simple words.

As he started going down the hall, he called up his girl, "Commander Kelly?"

"Yeah, Captain?" she replied.

"Our new friends needs a little… assistants on moving to a small town and back to resupply. It seems they dried up their city."

"Yeah, there was pretty much nothing left edible in the buildings I and Miss Snowlet investigated."

"So… are you up to it?" he asked a little nervously.

"I don't have much to say in the matter, dad. You are my commanding officer." he heard tools clattering about.

"Yes, but you're still my daughter, Kelly. Your feed back is still important. What do you say?" he said.

After a moment of silence, she eventually replied, "I can't trust someone else doing this job for me, dad." she replied.

"Okay, I'll see you at Docking Bay Three, than." he said before changing the feed, "Send a reply to the leader." he commanded.

"Of course, Captain." a feminine voice spoke out.

* * *

Celestia watched as their little friend projected out a screen of their planet in blue and their visitors' ship as white; a small ship going down onto the planet, following a line of dots. At the bottom of the screen were two rows of twenty long rectangles and the one at the bottom right corner blinked once before splitting into five small squares and blinked ten times before going out and moved onto the other.

"Hmm… ten second blinks… sixty seconds with each rectangle… Oh! They should be here in twenty minutes!" Twilight said in amazement and felt a little proud of herself that she deciphered what the hologram showed and tried to tell them.

Celestia looked down at her former student, "Can you gather up your friends for the trip to Ponyville?" she asked.

Twilight looks up at her with confusion, "Um… not to be a little rude but… why me and my friends?" she replied.

"Because you six know the town better than anyone in this castle, Twilight. Yes, I know there are Ponyvillian civilians in the castle, but I'm not sending out even one of them because they're not equipped and experienced in battle. As far as I witnessed, you and your friends are the best team to lead some of my guards out there, without question." she puts a comforting hand on the young alacorns' shoulder with a motherly smile, "I have complete faith in you and your friends, Twilight. I trust you to make the right calls out there with our new space-age friends." she finishes but kept her hand in place.

Twilight took a few deep breaths with closed eyes before nodding up at her former teacher with a smile, "I won't fail you, Celestial." she said before wrapping her arms around the white alacorns' waist in a close hug, her head resting right under Celestials' large mammary glands. The Princess giggles and returned the hug in kind.

"I know you won't, Twilight." she replies as she used her wings to hug the shorter alacorn as well.

* * *

The doors open to the War Room as five mares walked in and stood around the roundtable. They all looked okay, though, Rarity still seemed a little peeved that she had a week of cleaning duty with an old maids' outfit after her little stunt with a visitor and had a tongue lashing of a lifetime by Twilight herself, a little bit by the rest of her friends and the Princess. They didn't say anything else after because the poor mare was embarrassed enough with all the whistling she gained by the local stallions. Doesn't help that the frilly skirt only reached down to the mid of her thigh and had the tendency of sliding up in the middle of her work. At this point, she was sure she flashed at least a dozen or so ponies while on her hands and knees.

"Good morning, every pony! I have orders from Princess Celestia for today." she announced.

"Do I get to take this tacky thing off?" Rarity hoped and Twilight nodded.

"So… what's the news?" Rainbow Dash asked from her left with crossed arms.

"We're going back to Ponyville." she replied with a calm voice, "We're going home, every pony."

Than a sudden puff of pink smoke and streamers blew up right in the middle of the table with a tune of a kazoo sounding out, "We're Going Home!" Pinkie screamed as she bounced on the spot with a party hat atop her curly and puffy pink mane while squealing like an excited filly.

 **Authors' Note:** **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though, a little rushed it may be.**

 **This might be the last chapter till goes on Hiatus, but that might not be the case because out of all the stories I wrote so far, this one is the most fun I get from actually writing it.**

 **So till next time, comment if you like, have a nice day/night and good reading, everyone.**


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